Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 202 The Corpse Collector

"About Chimera No. 17..." Before Yang Qi could finish her words, another voice suddenly interrupted her.

"This Chimera 17 may not be the first strange creature to appear." Zhu Long, who was sitting opposite Sun Hang and Yang Qi, said, "I once participated in the operation of hunting Chimera 14. After the mission was completed, the wreckage of Chimera 14 was sent to Tianshu Tower for autopsy... The experts of Tianshu Tower found that the torso core of Chimera 14 is exactly the same as that of Chimera 9, which was seriously injured and escaped more than 50 years ago. In other words, Chimera 14 and Chimera 9 are actually the same kind of strange creature."

"You mean, Chimera No. 17... might be a different form of a known Chimera?" Yang Qi said seriously.

"It's just a guess, but the scorpion tail feature has appeared on Chimera 3, Chimera 6, and Chimera 10. Chimera 3 and Chimera 10 have already been conquered, and their remains are stored in the weirdo storage area of ​​the Tianshu Tower."

After Zhulong finished speaking, he took out a flat silver wine flask from his pocket, unscrewed the cap and took a sip.

Due to the appearance of Chimera No. 17, Wang Xiyi was forced to leave the battle sequence, and the group of hunters who participated in the upgrade trial did not come back, the combat power of the hunters in Tianfu City became stretched... In order to replenish the combat power, Zhulong who was on vacation was called back again.

In addition to Zhulong, there was another old acquaintance of Sun Hang in the cabin - the "puppet master" Zhong Ling, who was qualified for the strange equipment. But for some reason, this girl showed a very strange expression on her face when she saw Sun Hang, and when Sun Hang looked at her, she turned her head away to avoid the direct intersection of their eyes.

In addition to supporting Tianfu City, Zhulong's mission this time is to protect Zhong Ling's personal safety - as for Zhong Ling, the reason why she went to Tianfu City made Sun Hang feel a little unhappy.

According to the arrangement of Tianshu Tower, if the memes in Wang Xiyi's body completely get out of control, the Tianfu City Weird Things Research Institute will try its best to guide her in the direction of becoming a weird skeleton... and in this process, Zhong Ling himself needs to be present to establish a "consciousness link" with the weird Wang Xiyi in time.

Rather than saying that she is a reinforcement, it would be more appropriate to say that she is a "corpse collector."

Wang Xiyi is an extremely important fighting force in Tianfu City, and is also one of the very few stable individuals among the "inheritors" of the Black Dragon Meme. Neither the Xiazhou Federation nor the Tianshu Tower can allow such precious fighting force to go to waste... Turning it into a strange skeleton and then transforming it into Zhong Ling's strange weapon equipment is the only way to minimize the loss.

"To be honest, I'm more worried about Lao Wang's situation than Chimera." Sun Hang returned the tablet to Yang Qi. "What did the old man say? Is there still a chance to save him?"

"Teacher said..." Yang Qi paused and whispered, "There is little hope."

"Your friend's situation is actually very similar to Overlord's. Both of them over-stimulated their abilities, causing their memes to go out of control and then mutate... This situation is generally called 'backlash'." Zhulong sighed and said, "As far as I know, there is no record of any hunter who has been 'backlashed' being rescued. So... I advise you to be mentally prepared."

"If you wish..." Zhong Ling, who had been silent since getting on the plane, suddenly spoke. Her voice was so soft that it was almost drowned out by the noise made by the plane as it climbed higher. "I can find a way to make the 'consciousness link' fail..."

"If you need me to act, I will cooperate." Zhulong forced a smile.

“Thank you for your kindness… But to be honest, even if you risked being investigated by the Tianshu Tower and failed on purpose, Night Fury would not be buried like a normal person after death.” Yang Qi shook her head. “Her remains will most likely be preserved as an important sample. This is the fate of hunters…”

"No... I'm confused. Although Lao Wang has become the prison king, she's not dead yet. Why are you discussing her funeral?" Sun Hang knocked on the folding table in front of him with some dissatisfaction. "There is no record of anyone being rescued, so can't we create a record?"

"Sun Hang, I can understand your thoughts... but we need to face the facts. Wang Xiyi's current situation..." Yang Qi couldn't help but persuade.

"Even if she really can't survive, I won't let her become a specimen soaked in formalin solution." Sun Hang said word by word, "Old Wang once asked me to let me devour her if one day she can no longer survive in human form... It just so happens that I got a permanent buffet ticket from that old man surnamed Pei. I can eat whatever monsters are contained in the Tianshu Tower. It should be no problem for me to eat those from the Tianfu City Research Institute, right?"

"Sun Hang..." Yang Qi looked at him worriedly.

"When that time comes, I will extract all the weird memes from her body, turn her back into a normal human being, and bury her as a normal human being... Wait a minute!" Sun Hang was suddenly stunned and slapped his forehead hard, "Why do I have to wait until Lao Wang dies before consuming the memes in her body? If I absorb the out-of-control memes in her body now, won't she be able to return to normal?"

Yang Qi and Zhu Long looked at each other, and the latter shook his head and said, "Have you considered the dangers of this?"

"Danger? What danger?"

"Let's not talk about the impact that forcibly extracting the memes in the body by swallowing them will have on the host... You have to know that the memes in her body are currently in the mutation stage. If you absorb the mutated memes, these memes are likely to cause the original memes in your body to mutate together—"

Zhulong went on to say, "Tianshu Tower once conducted a live experiment. The researchers injected a small amount of memes from the hunter who was attacked by the backlash into the body of a stable infected person. In less than two hours, the memes in the body of the originally stable infected person went out of control. Seven hours later, he had turned into a strange corpse...even faster than the hunter who was attacked by the backlash."

"But I can even devour monsters directly. Aren't the infected people in the mutation period evolving towards the complete monster? Is this incomplete form more dangerous than the complete form with 100% infection process?" Sun Hang asked puzzledly.

"In theory, yes." Zhulong nodded. "Whether it's a hunter, a fully formed weird, or even a weird skeleton, the memes in their bodies are in a stable state. 20% is stable, and 100% is also stable... and in the process of 20% rapidly progressing to 100%, those unstable memes are the source of danger. It's like two chemical reagents that react violently when mixed together. They are safe before mixing and after the complete reaction, but they will be dangerous only during this reaction process."

Yang Qi closed the protective cover of the tablet and said to Sun Hang, "If you want to safely consume Wang Xiyi's memes, you must either do so while her infection process is still stable, or wait until she completely turns into a weirdo or a weird skeleton... In this state, her memes are highly toxic to any hunter... You will kill yourself."

"I want to try it." Sun Hang insisted.

"If I don't agree, the teacher won't agree either." Yang Qi's tone was even more determined.

"Then I'll ask the other person." Sun Hang took out his mobile phone - the "flight mode" of the mobile phones distributed by the hunters is different from the "flight mode" of ordinary civilian mobile phones. The latter directly turns off the signal receiving and sending functions of the mobile phone, while the former connects the mobile phone to the aircraft's own communication channel and uses the aviation department's network to communicate with the ground.

Sun Hang dialed a number and briefly explained his idea. After a few seconds, he looked up at Yang Qi and said, "He said yes."

"Who is he?" Yang Qi looked at Sun Hang in confusion.

"Pei Zongjun."

"Pei Zong... Pei Lao?!" Yang Qi was stunned. "You... you are calling him?"

"Yes," Sun Hang nodded, "He gave me a number and said I could call him whenever I needed something. Someone would answer the phone 24 hours a day." "Did Mr. Pei allow you to... absorb the memes of Wang Xiyi's mutation period?"

"Well, if you don't believe me, ask him yourself." Sun Hang handed over the phone.

"No, no, no need." Yang Qi waved her hands repeatedly.

"Oh, he also said that my idea is very innovative. If it succeeds, maybe I can promote it internally... I can specialize in treating hunters who are affected by the backlash of memes in the future... Oh, he also said that we can even further study whether the ability of Taotie can completely eliminate the memes in the bodies of infected people and turn them back into normal humans..." Sun Hang repeated what Pei Zongjun said on the other end of the phone, "I said it's possible, but it will cost extra."

Under Yang Qi's dumbfounded gaze, the conversation between Sun Hang and Pei Zongjun became more and more outrageous - "You know, when I said adding money, it definitely doesn't mean normal currency... As for what I want, I haven't thought about it yet. I'll tell you when I think about it."

"You...are you negotiating terms with Mr. Pei?" Yang Qi covered his mouth and asked in a very low voice.

"It's not really a negotiation, it's just a normal transaction." Sun Hang smiled, "Taking money from people and helping them get rid of disasters, it's that simple."

"He...he is..."

"Who is he? Even if he is the king of heaven, he can't get it for free, right?" Sun Hang said righteously, "Oh, by the way, Mr. Pei said that if you have anything to say to him, you can say it now."

“I, I, I…” Yang Qi stuttered, “I… I, I… I don’t know what to say… I…”

"That means there is no one. Next one." Sun Hang looked at Zhulong.

"Give my regards to Mr. Pei." Zhulong smiled and nodded to Sun Hang.

"Okay, Lao Pei said he also sends his regards to you." Sun Hang replied.

"You...what did you call him? Old...Old Pei?" Yang Qi's eyes widened even wider.

"Ah, what's wrong? He even dislikes me calling him old... Then what else can I call him? I can't call him Xiao Pei, right? That would make me look like an old man." Sun Hang looked at Zhong Ling, "Do you have anything to say to Lao Pei?"

Zhong Ling shook his head silently.

"Okay, I'll hang up first. I'll call you next time if I have something." After saying that, Sun Hang hung up the phone.

"Sun Hang...are you really calling Mr. Pei?" Yang Qi poked Sun Hang's arm with her finger and asked in a low voice.

"If you don't believe me, I can call again and you can answer the call yourself."

"No, no!" Yang Qi quickly refused, "I'm just a little surprised..."

"If I remember correctly, he is your idol?" Sun Hang asked.

"I guess so... In our line of work, there are few who don't admire Master Pei."

"Is he so awesome? That's right. If he wasn't awesome, he wouldn't be the number one employee of the Tianshu Tower. The Xiazhou Federation wouldn't spend so many resources just to keep him alive... Speaking of which, I'm a little curious about what he has accomplished."

"There are too many to list in a short time." Yang Qi said, "If you have time, you can check the official website of Tianshu Tower... With your current authority, you should be able to check even the highly confidential information."

"If you ask me to check it myself, I'm too lazy to do it. Why don't you just pick out a few important things and tell me about them."

"It was he who facilitated the cooperation between the Siberian Federation and the Xiazhou Federation on the weird creature research project." Yang Qi said, "And at that time, he was already an authority in the field of weird creature research."

"In other words, the Wuming Island Research Institute was built under his leadership?" Sun Hang frowned.

"Yeah." Yang Qi nodded.

"That's strange..."

"What's weird?"

"I originally thought that the data about the Nameless Island Research Institute was lost because everyone in that era had died... But later I learned that Pei Zongjun was an 'old monster' who had lived for a long time. I kept thinking that he might have been studying strange things more than a hundred years ago. Logically speaking, he was an eyewitness to those things back then. Others don't know what happened back then, so why doesn't he know..."

Sun Hang glanced at Yang Qi and continued, "Now you tell me that the Nameless Island Research Institute was built under his leadership... That's even more strange. Could it be... that his memory was also erased?"

Yang Qi looked at Sun Hang, wanting to say something but stopping herself - she did not have the right to know what happened on the Nameless Island for the time being. Even though she was full of curiosity about Sun Hang's weird words, she could not ask.

It felt as if there were many ants crawling on her skin. She could feel the itchiness of these little creatures brushing away the hairs on her body and their delicate limbs scratching her skin, but she just couldn't reach out to brush them away... This feeling almost drove her crazy.

(End of this chapter)